Editor’s note: Colorado Common Cause Director Jenny Flanagan believes same-day voter registration will make voting more accessible to disenfranchised Coloradans, but won’t endorse draft legislation on the subject until she sees the bill as introduced, she said.

The bill is not yet in its final form, though it’s already riling clerk and recorders from across the state. Today, Senate Republicans and a GOP candidate for the secretary of state job lined up to join the fray.

Advocates for the legislation, like sponsor House Speaker Terrance, Carroll and Colorado Common Cause Director Jenny Flanagan say* say the bill will open the door to frequently disenfranchised voters by making it easier to cast ballots and encouraging young people to participate.

“The business that I do business with is treating me like a criminal. He’s taking my picture. He’s depriving me of my due process,” Kerr said. “If this slippery slope continues, each of us will be spying on the other of us. Each of us will be responsible for taking others’ liberties away.”

“My boss flip-flopped for Obamacare and I all I got was this lousy T-shirt,” it reads.

“Tacky and inappropriate” was the response from Markey’s office.

The flip flop is in reference to the Fort Collins Democrat’s switch on health-care reform from a “no” vote to a “yes.” (But can it really be called a “flip flop” if the latest version of the bill is different than the earlier one?)

Anyhow, the National Republican Congressional Committee’s “Project Code Red” is behind the T-shirts, which were given to the staffs of the five House Democrats who switched their votes.

Sens. Chris Romer and Nancy Spence want to put age restrictions back into a bill regulating relationships between doctors and their pot-seeking patients. But first they needed permission from the House to debate the topic in a conference committee.

After some hemming and hawing, the House today gave the bipartisan pair of senators the go-ahead to address the issue in a six-person panel made up of Dems and Republicans from both chambers.

Sen. Rollie Heath’s bill to reward employers who rehire laid-off workers narrowly survived death at the hands of his own party members in the Senate today.

Sponsored by Heath, D-Boulder, and Sen. Chris Romer, D-Denver, Senate Bill 133 would give a tax credit to employers who rehire workers they’d laid off in 2009. Heath said the bill could give an extra psychological push to employers who are on the verge of hiring back their laid-off workers.

The measure is expected to cost the state $3.1 million a year.

Some Democrats have questioned the value of the tax credit, saying that employers who are already planning to hire back workers will just be rewarded for what they were going to do anyway. Republicans have said either that the tax credit is not expansive enough or that it is an insult given the fact that the Democratic-led legislature has repealed more than $100 million in tax exemptions for businesses this year.

But today, it was the Democrats who nearly killed the bill. On a recorded tally, the bill failed to pass by one vote, going down on 17-17, with Democratic Sens. Morgan Carroll of Aurora, Moe Keller of Wheat Ridge, Mary Hodge of Brighton and Gail Schwartz of Snowmass Village joining 13 Republicans to vote against it.

Plenty of focus is on the November election, but voters in at least 134 cities and towns will be voting on candidates and local ballot measures on Tuesday.

Fruita proposes to impose a 5-percent sales tax on the sale of medical marijuana. If the measure passes, Fruita will be the first city in the state to impose a specific tax on that product, according to the Colorado Municipal League.

The issues range from a tax on food to issues involving the Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights and term limits.

“These elections will determine the future direction of a lot of the smaller towns and cities,” said Sam Mamet, executive director of the Municipal Leage.

Joey Bunch has been a reporter for 28 years, including the last 12 at The Denver Post. For various newspapers he has covered the environment, water issues, politics, civil rights, sports and the casino industry.